Philadelphia, PA - The Roll, to scoop or not to scoop that is the question. Seed or not, toasted or not, and/or Garlic bread are also good bread-roll questions. But today, I want to focus on scooping. I have grown to love an excellent seeded roll. Until recently, I believed the Roll was a role player, and the only thing it could do to stand out was hurt the cheesesteak. Above all else, I never believed in scooping.
Leonardo's Italian Bakery and DaVinci's Brick Oven Pizza & Deli, Feasterville, PA.
Today, I sit before you to declare the Roll is vitally essential to a cheesesteak's greatness. Scooping is essential but should only be done in potentially dangerous situations.
Leonardo's Roll can make a cheesesteak better. It's a seeded roll and adds to the flavor of a cheesesteak. It has a traditional crust of your typical Philly roll, but the bread is airy.
This is important, so when you bite into the cheesesteak, the bread collapses around the meat, cheese, fried onions, etc., versus squishing everything out the back of the Roll and onto your pants. If you have a dense roll, save the pants and scoop.
At DaVinci's Brick Oven Pizza & Deli, we got Leonardo's special cheesesteak. It came with broccoli rabe, sharp provolone, and long hots.
This cheesesteak had some robust flavors. DaVinci's Roll has airy bread, and they scooped the Roll. This created an almost complete opposite problem. All of the intense flavors stayed in the Roll, AND I needed more bread. * Sidebar - it was still a great cheesesteak. *
WithOUT scooping, all of the intense flavors would have stayed in the Roll because the airy bread would have collapsed around it. And, the collapsed bread would have been the perfect balance for all of the intense flavors.
When you go to DaVinci's; 1. They are BYOB so take a bottle 2. Ask Dotty not to scoop your Roll. She is a beautiful person and will gladly not scoop.
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The Philadelphia Cheesesteak Adventure - Hi, my name is Jim Pappas, and I have eaten hundreds of different cheesesteaks in the last year. A year ago, May 16, 2018, I started my Philadelphia Cheesesteak Adventure to find the ultimate cheesesteak. To see more great cheesesteak places, check out my website at The Philadelphia Cheesesteak Adventure.
